Rp 109b allocated for poor families

JAKARTA (JP): The city administration has set aside Rp 109.52 billion (US$14.6 million) to help poor families in the city as part of its social safety net program, secretary to the City Council's Commission E for social welfare Agus Waluyo said on Thursday.

Quoting data from the Regional Development Planning Agency (Bappeda), Agus said that Rp 106.77 billion of the total funds would be given directly to the poor families, while the remaining Rp 2.74 billion would be earmarked for the project management and operations.

Agus said that East Jakarta would receive the biggest share of the funds at Rp 34.18 billion followed by West Jakarta with Rp 23.64 billion.

South Jakarta will receive the third largest share, Rp 19.47 billion, while North and Central Jakarta will receive Rp 14.93 billion and Rp 14.55 billion respectively.

Agus said the funds would be given to the families through the Village Resilience Board (LKMD), mainly to help procure basic foodstuffs.

"The money will be given in stages over four months to the city's 265 subdistricts beginning in the middle of this month," Agus said.

He said that the provision of the funds, to be taken from the 1998/1999 city budget, was made in response to the sharply rising number of families living below the poverty line.

"Jakarta is already home to more than 57,000 families living below the poverty line," Agus said, adding that the program would be overseen by Bappeda.

According to data from the city's office of the National Family Planning Board, 57,218 Jakarta families were living below the poverty line in October, up from 23,384 families in July.

The data stated that with 16,937 poor families, West Jakarta had the highest number of any of the mayoralties in October. The previous month East Jakarta had the most, with 13,355. (ylt)